Press release 10/01/2019

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION INDEX, NOVEMBER 2018

Industrial activity in the Basque Country fell by 1.9% in November 2018

The Industrial Production Index accumulated growth of 1.8% in the first eleven months of 2018, led by capital goods with an accumulated rate of 3.3%

Industrial production of the Basque Country in November 2018 was down by 1.9% compared to the same month of 2017, in homogeneous terms of the working calendar, according to Eustat data. The balance for the first eleven months of 2018 saw growth of 1.8% on the same period of 2017.

Compared to the previous month, October 2018, the industrial production of the Basque Country fell by 1.8%, once seasonal effects had been corrected.

The performance of the index in November 2018 compared to November 2017 registered positive and negative results in the major industrial sectors. Capital Goods were down 6.6% and Intermediate Goods fell by 1.5%, however Energy saw an increase of 4.3% and Consumer Goods overall were up 1.4%. Within the latter, Consumer Durables increased by 11.5% and Consumer Non-durables decreased by 1.9%.

The month-on-month variation, November 2018 on October 2018, registered downward trends for all the major industrial sectors except Energy, which rose by 2.6%. Capital Goods were down by 5.0%, Intermediate Goods fell by 0.9% and production of Consumer Goods as a whole fell by 2.5% due to the drops experienced both by Consumer Durables, which were down by 1.8%, and Consumer Non-Durables, which fell by 2.7%.

Among the largest sectors in Basque industry, those that saw the most significant growth in terms of year-on-year variations were: Electrical Material & Equipment with 20.4%, Timber, Paper & Graphic Arts with 7.2% and Electricity, Gas & Steam with 6.9%.

In contrast, there were decreases in the sectors of Transport Material, which fell by 16.5%, Machinery and Equipment, down 5.8% and Rubber and Plastic, down 4.2%.

By province, the year-on-year performance of the Industrial Production Index for the month of November was positive in Bizkaia, where it rose by 1.0%, but in Gipuzkoa, there was a decrease of 0.7% and in Álava it fell by 8.8%.